he did say that unlike president obama he was going to reduce taxes on small business rather than raise them. >> we will champion small businesses, america's engine of job growth. that means reducing taxes on business not raising them. it means modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. and it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and replacing obama care. >> reporter: and, joe, what had larry administering some tough love to romney after the speech he did not say the word tax cut and did not invoke his 20% across the board individual tax rate reduction which he has proposed. interesting they thought a higher priority was humanizing him, connecting with women voters especially. >> larry and his tax cuts. in fact that could have been his whole speech, tax cuts and larry would have been more happy with that. here's one other thing that struck me. you saw the testimony from people, mitt romney was a pastor of an lds. you saw the family that had the son that passed away and how poignant that was and you also saw -- >> reporter: yes.

president obama speaking to the business round table today, attending to the group's quarterly meeting of ceos. jim mcnerny says including meaningful and comprehensive tax and entitlement reforms. this is the number one story that we've been talking about every morning here since the election. fiscal cliff, big, big issue. there are now, it seems, growing numbers of people on both the right and the left who would like to see us just go over that fiscal cliff. how big of a problem would that be? >> that would be a big problem. i actually still believe that those -- the democrats, the administration, republicans in the final analysis don't want to see that happen. they do understand that not only would that present a problem in the near term as we went over the cliff at the end of the year, but we still then have the whole debt ceiling fight that would transpire shortly into the new year. the issue isn't simply the negative result of going over the cliff, but it's also that business, consumers, everybody continues to hold back on the uncertainty. and we believe the economy is pretty well

, and i didn't come on here just to promote obama versus romney, i think obama has put in obama care affordable care act, i think there are many features that protect small businesses, if you're under 50 employees, you're under 25 employees, you really are pretty much removed from all of the problems. >> that might make you want to keep it at 49 employees. might make you hesitant to go above that and add jobs if it means you're now all of a sudden -- >> one of the advantages, i was talking to our companies yesterday, one of the best parts is he hires a lot of young people and now all the people who are under 25 that he's hired, of which most of them are, are all staying with their parents. >> so you see people, just on a couple days ago, companies that used to do full time are now going to part-time because they don't want to do health care for full time so they switch the business model to favor part-time. >> you know, honestly, i would say that may be true for a lot of the larger companies. i see so many small businesses, i was out in california yesterday, i must have met in four d

is bad for business. make the case maybe to larry about why you disagree. >> i do disagree. i this i that what happened with the auto industry certainly you'd get a different story. you know the facts there. if you look at our relationship overseas of the trade agreements that have passed, three of them, i believe three of them since president obama has been in office, if you look at the proposals on the economy, the stimulus, i think helped save what could have been a catastrophic occurrence, downfall of our economic situation in this country, small businesses, 18 tax cuts since president obama has been in office, there's a lot to work with there. >> jason, why do you think that it's a good idea not to embrace business in terms of a relationship. they've made every attempt to join the president in common pursuits and got no place, and basically he seems to demonize business. it's great for a country to, another country to represent business in a way that's helpful all over the world, as a matter of fact

you have enough uncertainty in business. business is hard, by the way. president obama thinks well these guys can pay it, they can afford it. listen, it is not easy to conceive of a product, and then produce that product at a cost that is lower than what you can get somebody to buy it for. that is hard. that's why most businesses fail. and now washington is going to increase the tax burden on small to medium sized businesses? now washington is continuing to increase the regulatory burden. that's -- the problem is the size of government. all of government's intrusion in our lives. all the rules and regulations. if you want to get this economy going, and i think you could get it going, reduce the government -- the federal government's influence on business people's lives, and on american's lives and we could get this economy moving forward. >> we cut the capital gains rate pretty low. i've started five businesses. some successful, some not successful. when they were not successful, government had nothing to do with it. a great idea where you work hard and

>> i run a business, obama is not scary to me. i'm not saying i'm happy paying higher taxes, regulation is a problem, don't like that but i'll tell you why we aren't investing more although we are hiring more people is that the economy is weak. the reason it is weak is because of demand, the middle class is broke. >> because they're jobless. >> it's not a question of getting more cash to investors. >> chicken and egg, chicken and egg. >> you're not listening, the middle class is jobless. >> you're right, governor, there are no jobs, therefore the middle class is having a much harder time, but now they're going to go back and say the reason it's 8.3% is because of the depth of the 2008 financial crisis, not because of what we've seen since then, and i mean all i had to do is look at what's happening in california right now. it's the third worst state to do aboutis in, an 11% unemployment rate there. you're seeing tech companies outsource workers. you can see it happen with states, and people move out of state, well en masse, when i

president obama came into office the stock market has doubled. that does not happen without profits, more than doubled. >> you also know there's been a lot of rhetoric and a lot of bruised feelings between wall street and broader business community and washington. in order to kind of see a better relationship, what do you think needs to happen? who needs to offer the olive branch? >> look i think the president is very conscious of the importance of the private sector. i think some of the rhetoric that you have in the year before an election on both sides is not constructive and typically that gets put behind the evening of the election, and i take it at face value the president believes he's president of the entire nation and he's going to do his very best as i think he has to lead the entire country. >> there's a group of ceos, the fix the debt organization, more than 80 s&p ceos signed off and said they're going to try to support both sides to come together. >> right, i think that's a noble enterprise, and i think it will be important and i thi

romney seems to be the pro-business guy, the market friendly guy, president obama took a whack at business, as you well know. >> yep. >> listen, i've been worried about the economy for the last three or four months because of the jobs storstory. the jobs lead into retail sales and consumption, but the fiscal cliff affects business. you've got all of these higher end smaller businesses that pay the llc s corps tax rate which may go up substantially not only because the bush tax cuts expire but the obama tax hikes begin next year. beginning 2013 you could have a $450 billion tax bill and the marginal rates that affect economic growth and incentives go up. how the presidential candidates come out it's mostly -- >> i think there's a lot of uncertainty no matter who gets elected. say romney were to win and bring for example, even both houses with him. you would have the uncertainty of the repeal of a lot of what the obama administration did or probably what larry said six months after that. we're probably moving in the direction that some businesses want, which would be positive, but you have a

would you describe the obama administration as being nurturing of business? >> in the last year or two we've seen significant changes. a guy who is in charge, cass sunstein, looking at all the regulations we've got in place and deciding whether or not they make sense be is there a reasonable cost benefit ratio. the administration has thrown out scores of regulations that were outdate and that don't make a lot of sense. the role of government is to steer the vote. we don't start or create businesses. we provide the nurturing environment to create. that's our job. >> coming up, paul ryan on the budget proposal. also, it's trump tuesday. but coming up, panda bears and tea makerschina are coming up for a very lucrative project. we'll be right back after the break. y, this is challenger. i'll be waiting for you in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their cli

even in the last election, we had a lot of friends in business who voted for obama because they felt that he would be moderate, that he would come to the center and that the rhetoric, the very sort of left rhetoric was something that was playing to the base. in the past couple of years, they said it was not playing to the base. we've had many people in business say we've got to chang the administration because business is going to be -- become the big negative force in society and that can't happen. >> it isn't about spreadsheet. >> you cannot serve from a empty wagon. you have to have a healthy private sector that can give back in good times and bad. and you can't have destroyed balance sheets and get anything out of private companies. >> so when you hear, jack, when you hear someone say that, you know, maximizing profits can hurt -- what was the term? maximizing profits can hurt companies, communities and workers i think, what should you do with a comment like that? is that a total election airing demagogue comment or does the president not get without profits there's no such thing

meantime today president obama will be meeting with small business leaders. at issue of course is the series of tax increases and spending cuts that kick in at the end of the year if congress doesn't act. >> there will come a point in time where we can't borrow anymore money and interest rates will sky rocket. >> cnbc's raise above campaign continues. we're asking who has the courage to rise above partisan politics and find a solution. among our guests, three men who understand washington, wall street and corporate america very well. we have the chairman of president george w. bush's council of economic adviser, ed lazear, roger altman, and real estate tycoon don peebles. but let's cover this morning's top headlines. >>> we do have a lot in the corporate headlines this morning including equity residential and avalon bay communities agreeing to buy archstone from lehman brothers holdings. the price tag, about $6.5 billion in cash and stock. the deal gives lehman cash to help pay its creditors as it liquidates. but it paid $22 billion for this company originall

the obama administration is trying to do. >> i wish now we could get ann winblad back. because -- now you -- >> i don't know how to read you, i give up. >> exactly right. so homestead act, limited the amount of leverage that texans could take on, therefore no one had an ltv, loan to value greater than 80%. today as i said, you see california debt loads per capita over two times that of texans. >> texas is helped out by the oil and gas. >> where i was going -- >> yes, it's been helped out. houston has 28 ports. i mean houston is one of the biggest exporters -- >> if you were the next mark zuckerberg sitting in your dorm room right now and you had great new idea, you're probably still going to silicon valley. you're going to california. >> i'm not a silicon valley gal. if i'm starting to business, i'm going to texas. >> texas is it? >> i just think that -- i'm not, i'm not sure, i think if we asked ann, she would say you would still show up in california. >> i would not stop at texas. because there are many other states that are attracting a lot of business. here's the pr

so let's assume for a second president obama does get reelected, can you reassure small business owners, entrepreneurs, decision makers in business that the democratic house agenda can move forward with pro growth policies to get us back on track? >> absolutely and if you look at what the president has done, as you know, he did inherit a very difficult economy. i think republicans acknowledge that fact. we are a lot better off today than we were when he was sworn in. we have a long way to go, but you mention your uncle. i salute your father, the governor, who when he was asked by the budget committee whether he would take a deal that had a balance of revenue and cuts, he said yes. i mean he said he'd take $10 in cuts to $1 in revenue whereas mitt romney got up there and said no, mitt romney doesn't want to see his tax burden go up in any way, even if it's necessary to help take care of the long-term deficit challenge in a balanced way. >> there's someone for everyone, in p.'s family. if you don't like 43, you like 41, you might like jeb. lauren bush very nice person, very, very nice and

and i keep hearing, wow, if obama is so anti-business, why i corporations record profits? why are they doing so well? it's been pretty good for u.s. companies. but then i think about how many jobs have not come back and why these jobs are not hiring. if it was that easy and they saw the demand and needed to to make product and grow revenue, they would be doing it if it were in their best interest and it is not. >> i think the demand head winds are very stiff and the discussion earlier was also talking about technology, the replacement of new labor saving technologies for labor. and not introduced into the technology was the globalization bogey, the apple supply chain story where apple, our greatest company, is a leader in innovation but creates most of its jobs offshore in places like china rather than in the united states. you put it all together, you have a tepid employment outcome here and that then tends to reinforce the weakness in underlying private consumption in the united states. >> steve, don't you think the weak demand itself is due to the policy so there's real

president obama wants congress to announce tax breaks for small businesses and remove barriers to business startups. plans to send a bill to the legislative body today. the package makes permanent a capital investment and would extend for a year the ability of businesses to immediately deduct all of the costs of the equipment and software purchases. that's a pretty interesting development. >> you have nothing to be ashamed of. you have mentioned at least five guys she would leave you for in a minute, right? >> well, we don't need to talk about this on the air. >> brady. >> brady, my wife likes brady, yes. >> some other ones. >> matt lauer. she really loves him. that's true. >> so don't worry about it. you're fine. you're fine. >> okay. let's go to florida. we have news. >> florida. florida voters -- she's doing something, two twins, she is not watching. florida voters are going to the polls today are for the state's presidential primary. here is just a sampling for the most recent poll data. rasmussen puts romney ahead. nbc and reuters 15 points. sufficieolk university gives hi 20-point --

. >> if you can't start with the idea that you need to make the environment as positive for businesses as you can, and we are aren't in that place with the obama administration. >> this is what i would say. companies have tons of cash. tons of money. profit as a percentage of gdp. >> if it's not being -- >> because there's no demand. >> why is there no demand? >> because consumers oar. >> i'm just playing this through. because consumers are deleveraging from the debt they had during the crisis. >> the job both you need to help consumers and this country are not going to come from government jobs. you need to pay for government jobs with the tax revenues you get from people in the private sector. >> i agree with that. >> you are telling me what we need to do is cut taxes more so that companies have more -- >> no, i'm telling you we can't be facing a fiscal cliff where all our taxes just go up everywhere in combination with the taxes from obama care. >> what if we need to face this fiscal cliff with revenues and spending cuts. and the republicans have said absolutely not. >> they haven't

as we head to break here is president obama last night. >> i worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to america not because our workers make less pay but because we make better products. because we work harder. and smarter than anyone else. i signed agreements that are helping our companies sell more goods to millions of new customers, goods that are stamped with proud words "made in america." >>> how will today's jobs data impact the fed's next move? we are joined this morning by morgan stanley managing director and chief economist vince reinhart. thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> it is great to get your opinion on this because we just had a long discussion with steve liesman about this and he is quoting quite a few people that say qe3 is coming either way. you agree with that? >> more policy accommodations coming either way. next week they do rate management, extend their commitment to keep rates low into 2015. they're not going to do balance sheet until december. >> but they're going to do it. >> yeah. end of the year. december is the perfect time to revi

one thing i want to ask you, because you are quoted earlier this week saying some of obama's crazy anti-business programs are getting in the way of creating jobs. lot of times his critics on the left say he's been too nice to business, and that he's actually curried favor and bailed out wall street and not main street. what crazy anti-business programs are you talking about specifically? >> well, certainly obama care. i've been a health care provider for 45 years and i have a clear idea of how to improve health insurance. none of those things were in the bill, 2,700 pages that no one read, not the white house, not the house or the senate. 2,700 pages that didn't get the job done. we should have a very vigorous interstate insurance business. when you take a break on cnbc, we're going to see a geico versus all state versus progressive fighting for car insurance and the price goes down. you'll see vonage fighting with at&t and with verizon, and the price of cell service goes down. you don't see that with health insurance. that is one thing that could have been done. i've insured my employees for 45

. >> you think you need business experience as a veep? if you want somebody who steps into his role and has some of the same capabilities he has, whether you actually need someone who has been in business? >> i think president obama was wise to pick a washington insider who knew his way around and joe biden to help him. i suspect mitt will make a similar choice. >> that's whey imagined as well. >> good to have you here. >> i thought you were on our side. >> i'm attacking you from -- not really attacking you but trying to get you to -- you've heard it has been, has it not been a shihtzu storm the last two weeks? >> it has. the fact of the ma thor is i don't think rupert murdoch is going to decide who the next president is. he has his own pr and spin problems. he has a few of his own. >> in new jersey he didn't say a whole lot and ran against the other guy. christie wasn't clear about what he was going to do. if he ran against i'm not corzine and he won. >>> still to come, a successful investor by day and high stakes power player at night,

are you getting anywhere with free market-type stuff, pro-business type stuff? is that a yes? you're not going to answer that, all right. >> there's a real kind of gridlock right now. it involves both parties. this is one of my frustrations as a businessman is i've always viewed business as the source of productivity and standard of living in the u.s. and we need government to both enable and regulate and we need both parties working to the to make this happen. and right now there's gridlock. nobody is doing any of the work they should. >> but you think at this point all party, both congress and the white house understand that a lot of jobs, a lot of tax revenue, a lot of things that underpin an economy come from business, right, david? they know that now? >> i believe that's true. i believe both sides are often times most comfortable as long as they can blame the other. it's almost like saying i'm happy as long as the hole is on your side of of the boat. and of course that doesn't work, we're all in this boat together. >> david, i don't know about at that. the latest thing is

the weekend, "the new york times" informed me that both sides of the political aisle agree that the obama administration's attacks on private equity, which have ramped up hugely in the last month, that they're seeing a benefit from that. people on the right say they're not sure it's lasting. people on the left say that it's definitely something they're going to keep doing. do you think that candidate romney has addressed the attacks on bain sufficiently? and are you yourself -- i mean, do you feel nauseous when you hear them, like cory booker, or does it make you -- what do you think of the attack? nauseating? nauseous. i think it's nauseated. >> yeah, i have different visceral reactions as well, and nauseating may come into it, but you have to really look at things in a broader context. and people could pick at one or two bad things that happened that they don't like in a different construct, but when you think about our industry, one, we provide a lot of capital. and there are a lot of companies that we have saved over the last five years by virtue of having that capital in a cash-strap

and he, despite the fact that obama had all the economic statistics stacked against him, romney didn't make the case to the american people. >> so you don't think that -- >> how do you read an election, you can swing it any other way, but how do you ever say you have a mandate on something if you're going to say when you win the election, it doesn't mean what you thought it was going to mean. because we had a lot of people telling us ahead of time, look, this election is going to be a deciding factor. this election is going to tell us something about what the people want. >> two things. one, remember, i said i thought romney was going to lose all the way through. because i thought he was doing a terrible job making his case for his side. my side. so, that's one piece of it. so i'm not surprised by the outcome. but it was really his failure on the merit was the case. the other piece of it is, i mean, ultimately, the president did win decisively in the electoral college. republicans kept the house. they lost barely any ground, even though they picked up a huge number of seats in 2010 of

care, tax policy, condemning business, you say all that has something to do with it. >> let me give you one example and it has to do with the regulatory environment and regulation in which businesses are getting squeezed. the nlrb is supposed to be a nonpartisan mediator to deal wish issues between the unions and the private sector and corporations. but they put in place this left wing unionist to run this thing. it's become highly partisan. look what they did to boeing when they tried to attack boeing for building a plant in south carolina. now, let me tell you how they don't think things through. i'm looking at this, i'm a decision maker, i decide are we going to build a plant here, our group does, or are we going to china, after what they did to boeing telling them where they had to build the facility and who they had to hire and pay. after what they did to bogue, they can do it to us, we're not building here anymore, we're going to china, where we're welcome and they would love to have us there, you multiply me by the other thousands out there, it's a jobs problem because we're

again come together and stand together for the man we can trust, my husband, our president, barack obama. >> top democrat being strategist and former presidential campaign guru bob shrum joins us for the next two hours. >> taking aim of business opportunities here and abroad. one of the world's most powerful women, indra nooyi is here. >> we'll talk politics as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. >> good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. let's get to your morning headlines. yesterday the dow and s&p ended down but they both stayed above those key levels, the dow above 13,000, the s&p above the level that we had bench watching with it, too. dow futures are up by 6 points. facebook shares rebounding by 2.5% after hitting post ipo lows yesterday. ceo mark zuckerburg says he will not sell any shares for 12 months. meantime, growth in china's services sector fell to its lowest pace in a year last month. and fedex has cut its earnings guidance citing a weak global economy. analysts had been looking for earnings of $1.56 a share. >> the democratic conv

businesses or some business lobbying groups immediately responded yesterday that this is bad news for its members, the national retail federation, the national federation of independent businesses are particularly concerned about what it may mean for smaller businesses too and i guess my question to you is what can be done relief some of those concerns? >> well, becky, that really is good news that you opened this segment with from europe. it's encouraging to hear the eurozone crisis may be lessening a little bit. similarly the affordable care act decision upholding its constitutionality by the supreme court yesterday ought to show a path forward fours. republicans and democrats and the house and senate i think, our challenge is to come together and find ways to responsibly implement the affordable care act more fully taking into account of small businesses who don't understand the costs for them. as someone who worked in the private-sector before going into public service i understand the difficulties that annual double digit year-over-year increases in health care care costs impose

for him suggesting how we fix our fiscal problems is not going to resinate with obama at this point. >> no, but he tries to look like he's rising above. >> but lloyd is right, he's a smart guy, knows how to run a business, knows what the private sector and growth could help all of our fiscal problems and he's right about this. but i don't know how far he gets with it because he's lloyd blankfein of goldman sachs. but becky's got it here. you're rising above. obama seeking $1.6 trillion, you say that's his opening bid. >> because this is double when talks had broken off. $800 million in tax -- the revenue increases. we want $4 trillion -- >> so it was $3.2 trillion to $800 billion, that was 4 to 1. his opening bid is 1 1/2 to 1. >> the final negotiation should get somewhere between $1 trillion to 1.2 trillion in tax increases, revenue increases. >> $2.8 trillion in spending cuts. >> all right. if you -- if you -- >> you can't look at me anymore. >> i can't look at you. because i'm wondering it's on his right year, what does that mean -- i don't know. i could never keep that straight.

he's barely an independent. >> he's new york city. >> he just endorsed obama. but to say i'm endorsing obama because of sandy and climate change it's totally irresponsible. the intergovernmental panel, blah, blah, blah, on climate, they would never tie a single event to try to do that. it's ludicrous, it's embarrassing for him to do that. it's just clearly to me anyway i think he's jumped the shark with the 16 ounce but you go back again with the third term. i thought he was going to run for a third term so he might come back, too. >> when we return we'll talk more about the road to recovery. for some it's waiting for hours in line for gasoline to keep their cars and generators running. we'll talk to one observer the potential crisis the east coast could have growing right now. >>> as we inch closer to the october jobs report mark zandi will join us for the countdown as our guest host for two hours today. "squawk box" returns after this message. >>> the countdown is on. it's the final employment report before the election, and we are on the job. get the pick fr

this business of plucking phrases out of people's long statements is getting a little tiresome to me, and it isn't just obviously mitt that's made those. i can remember one, when president obama said that we found out that shovel ready projects aren't shovel ready. >> senator, it's bob johnson. how are you? >> how are you, bob. >> here's a question. why wouldn't governor romney and even the president go back to the simpson-bowles commission and say that's the platform we are to run on to move the country forward? it seems that commission has been completely discarded, and the business community is looking for some signal that that kind of leadership is coming from either party. >> well, bob, look, the simpson-bowles commission still lurks around here. those of us trying to avoid this draconian sequestration on defense keep looking back at the simpson-bowles commission. i don't know why the president didn't endorse the simpson-bowles commission since he obviously appointed them, but a lot of us think -- >> did governor romney endorse the simpson-bowles commission on the political platf

now this...will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just like you. go national. go like a pro. >>> moving closer to a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> i can't stop! >> there's a cliff! >> but can president obama and speaker boehner get their parties to come together on a compromise deal? >> we don't take no prisoners. >> we don't take no for an answer. >> oh, yeah. we don't take no for an answer. >> we don't take no for an answer. >> we'll ask senators from both sides of the aisle. republican bob corker and democrat kent conrad. >> plus the sector names that will make you money in the new year. our what's working serious continues with artisan portfolio manager james keeper. the third hour of "squawk box" starts right now. >> welcome back to "squawk box." i'm joe kerner along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. our guest, larry lindsey, former national economic council director and republican senator bob corker, will join us in just a few minutes to talk about the latest in the fiscal cliff negotiations. but first, andrew has your mornings headlines. >> a

. >> prosecute obama, mr. priebus, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >>> when we come back on "squawk box" the commissh is making his way to the "squawk" set, roger goodell's business model and the upcoming nfl season. stick around, "squawk" will be right back. ♪ ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. [ male announcer ] drive a car filled with as much advanced technology as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pur of perfection. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" everyone. the 93rd nfl season is se

the issue gets forced, if obama win. is that an accurate way to -- >> no. i don't think you should look at it like this. if the president is re-elected, which i expect he will be, the president has -- is going to look at this and say, now i've got four more years to focus on the clear problems of solving the debt and the deficit and at the same time protecting a certain level of entitlements. he's going to do that. i think the republican party is going to be faced with the fact that we have to address this problem or we'll be the cause of a significant decline in the u.s. economy at a worse time in the global environment. so, i believe cooler heads prevail. either way i can tell you right now, before december 31st, the can is going to get kicked down the road. >> either way. >> because nobody's coming out with a mandate, and anybody that says we have a mandate is foolish. >> either side will say they have a mandate. >> the opportunity to do something in power, you're not looking to be re-elected four years later, will drive the discussion for the president

leads romney 51% to 43%, inis with business the democratic incumbent leads his republican rival, but joe as we discussed before the show you look at what was it real clear politics. >> for the first time -- >> romney has more electoral votes. >> there's like 136 up for grabs. it's like 206 to 201. i don't have the exact number but 206 romney, 201 obama but there's a huge amount that are up for grabs. >> it will be a close race likely. >> the gallup, you read "huffington post," gallup is 52-45. close to the university of colorado prediction to like scary close to where it's supposed to happen. but you know, "huffington post" trying to explain the jarring results from gallup. what? this can't be! you can just see they're panicked. >> you know who works at the "new york times" and does the statistical analysis, he was up 70% chance for obama just recently brought it down to 66% so i don't know, but again that doesn't -- >> the oddsmaker in vegas. >> that guy in vegas thinks double down on romney. >> going to to be a rout. where are you? what do you think really? >> i would rather have r

. >> you want the businesses to success. >> even tanning booth owners. i have a problem with this idea that taxes are higher under obama than bush. they're not. it's a simple fact they're not. >> they're not unless you look at the health care plan. they're not at this point. we've extended all the tax cuts and gone through. >> the whole case for stocks would be that you get this under way, that you get the corrage. >> his base killed him after he extended the bush tax cuts for everyone. that hurt. >> liberals were displeased, most everybody in the country was i think -- >> kicking and screaming, despite his best efforts taxes haven't been raised. >> that may be your thoughts. what makes the sleep number store different? you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. oh, wow, that feels really good! take it up one notch. oh gosh, yes. once you experience it, there's no going back. now, save $500 on ou

he doesn't know how to do business well. he's a brilliant man. obama is a brilliant organizer. you need a ceo to cut costs, rationalize the infrastructure of the country and i would personally be willing to pay higher taxes once i knew they streamlined the defense department. nothing can have a $1.5 trillion budget and not have room to be adjusted. >> health care is number one, defense is number two and if you look at our defense budget it is 50% higher than the next 15 countries. >> look at what is happening in the world, anybody coming after us in the scale russia was? we had the smallest of the three majors, marriott, starwood and hilton and we rifle shot our scarce resources into places we get return on capital and the u.s. cannot afford to do what we used to do. we have to be realistic. this is common sense. i was in new york city last night, i stayed in the city to come out here. you can't get a hotel room but also can't get a visa to get into the country. >> you got a hotel room. >> i got one at my nice hotel rooms, they were nice to me and stuck me in a closet. you can'

he is an actual obama surrogate i think. >> yes. >>> plus it's thursday -- he's in the car business. now i get it -- which means weekly jobless claims are out, we'll bring you the data and break it down for you at 8:30 eastern this morning. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. [ male announcer ] for the saver, and a big first step. for the spender who needs a little help saving. for adding "& sons." for the dreamer, planning an early escape. for the mother of the bride. for whoever you are, for whatever you're trying to achieve, pnc has technology, guidance, and over 150 years of experience to help you get there. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a stunning work of technology. introducing the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hyb

yesterday business leaders urged president obama and lawmakers to prevent a year end across board tax rise that will go into act unless congress acts. >> he understands it requires a combination of tax increases and title refor and discretionary spending cuts that dnl democrats and republicans have to work together. i'm is sure there will be a lot of forth and back between republicans and democrats, the congress and the president as they start to work their way to a deal. but i'd say there's strong recognition of the significant of getting a deal for the ben fft t benefit of the american public. >> this is all about trying to make american business more competitive, trying to have a fair balanced approach to tax refo reform. the president was clear he wants a balanced approach and we were clear we are behind him. >> top the president and top member of congress will be meeting. cnbc is urging leaders to rise above partisan rhetoric to try to find a solution and in that spirit, we have two guest hosts. first of all, george p. bush, and jared bernstein, both joining us to talk about poli

it is a raes energizing republicans in a state that is keep to president obama's reelection campaign. john harwood joins us next. >> still ahead, the facebook fallout. we'll ask an investor about his early stake in the giant. keep watching cnbc, the first in business world wide. ♪ d wide. ♪ here we are, me and you ♪ on the road ♪ and we know that it goes on and on ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of making memories and keeping promises. ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪ ♪ oh, oh, all the way ♪ oh, oh . >>> welcome back to "squawk box." the futures better now. making headlines, goldman sachs reportedly laid off 15 employees last week, they were managing directors, on the higher end of the pay scale. >> mds, they were doctors. >> muppet doctors. >> voters attempt to replace wisconsin governor scott walker. john harwood joins us from madison, wisconsin with the latest. john? >> we're finding when you combine a strong partisan agenda with a political environment, the results are co

house speaker john boehner taking a meeting with president obama thursday. did they make any progress? that's a question john harwood joins us now with the latest on these epic negotiations. john, gives some sense that maybe things are -- something happening there? >> if there's progress there, disguising it very, very well. they met for a little will he less than an hour. people described it at frank on both sides, described it as frank afterwards and frank is a euphemism for we've got strong dpis agreements and did not make a break through. so, you know, i still think and i've always thought, as you guys know, that the fundamentals are in place for a deal to happen. but we may have to go over the cliff for a little while before it happens once those rates go up in january. and once some of those cuts kick in before you get the kind of chasening that lawmakers need to make a deal. >> what do you see as the top sticking point at this point? >> tax rates. >> not attaching the debt ceiling? >> no, no, the debt ceiling is a second stage issue and that will be a

we're 23 million americans that can't work, and 6 trillion of new debt under president obama. we can't keep going on this way. i think that's the closing argument. the debates are going to be critically important to move those last 5%, 6%, 10% of the undecided voters one way or the other. generally, when the president hadn't closed the deal with only a little over a month to go, those people generally will break for the challenger. and i think that's good for romney. >> you mentioned that you'd like to hear more specifics. and you think that's what mitt romney needs to lay out. it's tough to do that just in debates when you're in a tightly controlled format and have a limited amount of time. do you expect to hear more specifics on things like the tax plan, energy, in some speeches along the way? >> well, i think he's been a lot more specific than president obama who knows we're in debt up to our eyeballs and won't even except the simpson/bowles report -- >> but as a challenger, you probably have a higher hurdles to jump over to get there, correct? >> well, i'm not sure. if you

i think the original proposal on a bigger tax cut cutting 6.2 than 3.1 would be added and further business expensing could be added to that and so forth. >> roger, on the employment number i'm going back to the election for a second, it would seem over the past month that obama's done better in part because the republicans have been beating each other up but in part because it has felt like given the employment number we had last month there's been a little bit of a kick in everybody's step. does that go away? >> well, it's awfully hard to tell, andrew. if my expectation that the unemployment rate around the end of the year will be just a touch better than it is now, pick a round number and say 8% that fits with my own macro political view which is that the president is going to get a modest tailwind from the economy this year, but not a big one. >> and you've been there for a while, roger. you've been expressing, i don't know whether you want your party to make sure it doesn't get overconfident but you've been talking a really tough election for at least six months that i've been, when yo

president obama is going to survey the damage today with governor christie, and coming in this morning, i heard -- i was listening to the radio and i heard a bunch of sounds from christie. >> he had gone to the shore yesterday. >> giving people hugs. the boardwalk is gone in a lot of places. we showed some amusement rides. kayla has spent two days in cape may. she's moved north to atlantic city where the damage is also extensive. hey, kayla. >> hey, joe. the president is scheduled to visit atlantic city here alongside governor christie. we'll be taking that live as it occurs. the brunt of the storm was born by the jersey shore. the entire state of new jersey still reeling. two million residents without power. and governor christie calling the damage incalculable. that's the job of officials as they start figuring out how to start repairing the damage that has occurred. some experts around the industry have tried to start putting a number on this. a disaster modelling agency forecast losses between ten and 20 billion dollars. a former economist with the international trade commission sc

that level, so that for me, the nfib small business survey is already at recessi recessionary levels. if barack obama wins and drives us off the fiscal cliff we get a negative shock and go the other way. if mitt romney wins, he will be elected with a mandate to do pro-growth tax reform. small business will bounce undoubtedly like it did in 2010 and we'll have a potential way out of it provided we get into 2013 he can work with the congress and get something done on the tax reform side. so for me it's pretty, you know, it's just one or the other at this point. we're either mark farber is close to the truth or we can get a decent bounce going. >> john i know you look at the fiscal cliff and probably pretty worried about what happens. do you think that it's going to matter who's elected in terms of whether or not we go over the fiscal cliff? >> i think it will matter and the composition of congress is going to matter as well, becky, when you're looking at the data. clearly corporate profits growth has slowed down the last two years, looks like corporate profit growth going forward is ag

i think president obama has a reasonable understanding of business. i think he understands the profit job and the job of ceos and boards of directors is. i think he understands in general what private equity does. a lot of people look at the social costs associated with lots of leveraged buy outs and don't like them. that's a fair debate. as i said at the beginning i think private equity is an element part of finance. it has evolved into many different forms but it is ancient. what we see today is the most recent version of an ancient practice. >> to me i think the question becomes as you suggest private equity is just a term that has been placed on investment and the type of strategies that they apply. it's no different than what has been going on for a long time. and when you have issues of people being laid off because companies can't operate at that level in hopes that the company can turn around and contribute more profit to the bottom line and be reinvested in the community that is the way things work in business. we are going to have failures a

at the white house today, president obama will host mitt romney for a private lunch. it's their first meeting since the election. and this his victory speech, obama promised to engage with romney and consider his ideas. >> a lot of people didn't think the lunch would ever happen. >> interesting if he's going to be talking about ideas, mitt romney's idea had been to reach some sort of a cap on it 00 mem deductions. >> he would have just extended the bush tax cuts and then the other stuff would have been -- but if romney had been elected, whether bad long term to extend them, that's one thing, but he would have extended -- this is a weird argument to be having to have everything hinging on on the 2% that are -- suddenly as i've said before, suddenly everybody loves the bush tax cuts. so weird. >> flips the tables on who likes what. >> it all goes back to the line in the band. obama first time around caved and his base never for gave him for extending the bush tax cuts when he said he wouldn't. >> maybe the republicans should be reconsidering the tough line that they dre

. ♪ it's the at&t network -- providing new ways to work together, so business works better. ♪ >>> the obama campaign out with a new ad that characterizes mitt romney as a corporate raider. >> bain capital walked away with a lot of money they made off this plan. we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> jeffrey sees mitt romney differently. he worked with romney at bain. >> the third hour of "squawk box" starts right now. ♪ can i say this house is falling apart ♪ >> walk the moon, that's what this is. >> this is your request? >> no, i did not request it but i approve of it. that's a cincinnati band. >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. >> becky quick is off today. our guest host, tom stemberg. europe is rebounding. explain that to he. the more i read today, the more worried i got about the fire wall. that's what i'm thinking of. that's what people are deciding, if there is a disorderly exit by greece from the euro. >> it feels more and more likely in terms of sentiment. where it would really come to that is another thing, right? >> even the gu

like on in trade and i don't know, in trade with obama is still at 60%, for the house it was much higher for republicans keeping the house. that's come down quite a bit. are you on a daily basis in tune with how all those races are going, the key races. do you think you'll keep the house republican? >> yeah. i'm confident and we're working hard to make sure we take nothing for granted. because, you know, we picked up 65 new seats last cycle. and i think it's been demonstrated that we, in our new majority want to affect the kind of reforms here in washington to bring the country back to a growth oriented future and we're fighting very hard. we got some great candidates that are stepping up and playing offense as well as having many incumbents that are much more solid footing after we've been through the redistributing process and facing this the election. >> all right. we'll see. a lot of those guys said i only care if i serve two years i'll shake things up. when you do things like that we saw what happened to some of those guys in the '08 that vote forward the affordable care act and the

he said "the obama administration is openly hostile to most businesses and unable to articulate policies to reduce unemployment. what do you say to that? >> i have a lot of respect for can. i think he's just wrong. i think he's one of the more brilliant guys -- maybe the most brilliant man i've ever metn american politics, second to chicago's mayor of course. >> good call. >> i think he's been tremendous for the environment. what you look at what happened and people forget where we were financially and where the economy was -- >> i don't think nen's forgotten that, steve. i've been told so many times about what he inherited. i remember that -- i know but nobody's forgotten, believe me. you do realize we're at 8.2, there hasn't been a single month where the unemployment rate has been below where it was at inauguration day at 7.8%. not a single month and we're going to probably do the round trip to november where we still may not be below that. that doesn't say anything about the job that the private sector's been handed? >> i think what it says is we had some really intractable problems a

. >> there are those that argue obama's been way too friendly to business to bail them out. >> if becky were running a 30-person company or 100,000 person company, what does she need to plan her payroll? she has to understand what it's going to cost her to hire somebody, and also has to understand what the tax rate's going to be on how she operates, if she's an s corps or limited liability, she has no idea so you go into a defensive crouch. they are stuck like velcro. >> with all the money you provided. >> that's right but if they incent the system correctly the money we provided, again i believe we provided too much but that's just opinion. the gas tanks are full, step on the pedal, move the car forward and we are not incented as a people to do that. >> i think worsch said exit is a four-letter word. >> exit is something we talk about and i'm concerned about it personally because we've never been here before. these are huge amounts of money, you have large excess bank balances on the 12 balance sheets of the federal reserve banks, excess reserves 1.6 trillion, tons of money sitting in

. ♪ >>> welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc first business worldwide, i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. our guest host, duelling guest host, greg brown from motorola is gone, steve rattner former obama administration car czar. it's willett, are you in timber? >> thomas willett, first mayor of new york. >> he's working for the mayor. this is the mayor's money. >> that's right, that's cool to be a guy who has his own advi adviser. like michael dell, this is his guy. >> not just a guy, a lot of guys and gals. >> exactly. willett advisers chairman and also on the steering committee of the fix the debt campaign. more from steve still ahead. >>> first your morning headlines brought to you by becky quick. >> thank you, joe. >> you're welcome. >> among our top story the national retail federation says a record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the four-day holiday weekend up 9.2% from a year ago. americans spent more money while they were out shopping. the average holiday shopper handed over $423 up from $398 last year. >>> eurozone finance mini

let's just do it. >> what is the role of business in this conversation? i ask because over the past several weeks the obama administration has tried to reach out to wall street in a way perhaps it hadn't earlier. want to talk a little bit about that relationship post election. in terms of where you think business should be trying to influence or be part of this discussion. >> the business roundtable put a letter today in some newspapers signed by 150 ceos of mostly large companies. i think a lot of smaller companies feel the same way, we want a rational deal. want it market credible. know there will be increases in tax revenues link together with rationale entitlement reform with a rational multiple. that's what the business community wants, not the one specific thing people argue about whether this goes up. business wants a rational deal to go up because it would be good for the united states of america? >> you'll take a higher tax rate. >> yeah. i don't personally care. it's not the 39.6%. they are linked together. no one says i will take a higher tax r